MANGGARAIAN PEOPLE’S WORLD VIEW IN THE RITUAL TEXT OF

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Jurnal TUTUR, Vol. 3 No. 1. Pebruari 2017

ISSN 2442-3475 ASOSIASI PENELITI BAHASA-BAHASA LOKAL (APBL)

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MANGGARAIAN PEOPLE’S WORLD VIEW IN THE RITUAL TEXT OF BARONG WAE: A STUDY OF CULTURAL LINGUISTICS

Kanisius Rambut

Dosen Fakultas Bahasa dan sastra Universitas Flores

st.kanisius@yahoo.com

Abstrak

Artikel ini menelaah tentang pandangan penutur bahasa Manggarai yang tersirat dan tersurat di dalam teks ritual barong wae (ritual mengundang para leluhur yang menjaga air minum). Ritual ini merupakan salah satu aktivitas penti (syukur atas hasil penen semusim dalam setahun dan kerap juga dimaknai sebagai ucapan syukur akhir tahun). Dokumen akademik ini mengangkat seperangkat permasalahan, yakni (1) Bagaimana penutur bahasa Manggarai memandang segala sesuatu yang ada di lingukungannya dan tertera di dalam teks ritual?; dan (2) Bagaimankah implikasi pandangan dunia dalam teks ritual barong wae dalam kehidupan masyarakat Manggaragarai? Permasalahan tersebut dianalisis dengan model pendekatan linguistik kebudayaan. Pengumpulan data dilakukan dengan mewawancarai beberapa informan yang terseleksi, observasi langsung, dan mempelajari beberapa dokumen ritual. Karya ilmiah ini menjelaskan secara khusus tentang pandangan dunia guyup tutur bahasa Manggarai yang terkandung di dalam teks ritual yang berkaitan dengan Tuhan, leluhur, hewan, tumbuh-tumbuhan, batu, dan air, lebih khusus berkaitan dengan Tuhan dan leluhur, hewan ternak seperti babi dan ayam, dan air. Mereka melihat bahwa Tuhan itu adalah pencipta langit dan bumi serta segala isinya. Binatang tertentu seperti ayam adalah hewan peliharaan sebagai hewan persembahan yang pantas bagi Tuhan dan Leluhur. Ayam jantan melambangkan bahwa Tuhan itu adalah sosok seorang ayah yang mahabijaksana dan bulunya berwarna putih yang melambangkan hati yang suci.

Kata Kunci: Masyarakat Manggarai, Pandangan Dunia, Teks ritual barong wae, linguistik Kebudayaan

Abstract

This article as a scientific paper explores the world view of manggaraian people who live around the west area of Flores, in East Nusa Tenggara Province. It raises some problems that should be discussed such as How do manggaraian people view the everything in the world as well as in the eternal life that situated in the text of ritual barong wae? Then How do implications of the world view to the manggaraian people‟s life?. The two problems as pointed out above, could be analyzed by the cultural linguistic approach. On the other hand, to collect the data is reffered to the qualitative approach. Regarding to the way of collecting data, the writer applied three sorts of methods suchas observation, interview, and documentary study. The findings of the study show that world view of the manggarain people is defined as a way of manggaraian people looks at the things around in the real world and in the eternal life. Those things are Lord and ancestors in the eternal life and animals that used to be sacrified in the barong wae ceremony and water as a resource of life. Lastly, the world view that implied in the text of ritual barong wae can influence the way of thinking, the way of life, and the way of speaking as well as the way people of Mangarai behave.

Keywords: Manggaraian people, world view, ritual text of barong wae, and cultural linguistics

BACKGROUND

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Manggarai, Rembong, Ngada, Ende, Lio, Sikka, lamaholot, and Kedang (in Lembata island).

Manggaraian language is one of the ninth local languages in Flores and Lembata island. It is located in west of Flores which frequently used as a tool to share the ideas, feelings, and wills to each other. Based on the context of its use, the language can be divided into two different sorts; it is ritual language and usual language. In this article, ritual language is the main point might be discussed later on, especially in term of ritual activities that frequently run by the people of Manggarai as its speakers. Then, this article concentrates to explore the ritual language in barong wae as one of the cultural activities in Manggarai Regency. The barong wae is that a part of ritual penti in Manggaraian tradition. Language that used to record all the activities is recognized as ritual language. Regarding to the language of ritual barong wae. It might be better firstly to introduce what actually means by the term of barong wae. It appears as a phrase that consists of two words, it is barong means invitation and wae means water. So, the term barong wae is an honorable invitation to the spirits of ancestors living around the water resources. People of Manggarai belive that spirits of them always keep water in that area. Therefore language that used to record all the activities of ritual barong wae is known as ritual language.

Moreover, based on the explanation above, the ritual language is a play of symbol verbal that based on the imagery of its speaker (Palmer, 1996: 3; Rambut, 2015: 14). The theoretical statement of Palmer indicates that language is a symbol. Regarding to the language as a symbol, Chomsky argued that language has two important elements, that is, performance and competence. Performance is known as form and competence refers to meaning, imajery, and world view of its speaker. The ritual language as part of the language also has form in which consisted of meaning, imagery, and world view of it speaker as well as its form has special roles in term of the context of its use. In the context of use, the ritual language, especially ritual language of barong wae in Manggaraian culture, old group of people strongly preserve it as well as possible. It is because of the language is a representative of their ancestors. Beside that, it is a spiritual tool in communication with the Lord and soul of their ancestor. In contrast with the young group in Manggarai, nowadays, does not give any repects to the ritual language (see Rambut, 2015: 150). Furthermore he argued that mostly the young groups in Manggarai do not care of the language in ritual activities, for instance ritual language in the activity of barong wae.

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75 PROBLEMS OF DISCUSSION

As stated in the previous section, this article is designed to raise some issues that should be discussed to deal with the ritual language, used in the barong wae as one of the ritual penti in Mnggarai. In fact the ritual activities including the activity of ritual barong wae are usually formed out of parallelism and metaphore. Then, the two forms of the ritual language contain of meaning and world view of its speaker. In this article, it will be pointed out that world view of its speaker becoming a core point of the discussion later on. In regarding to the notions, therefore the writer tries to formulate the problem of the discussion as follows. (1) How do the Manggaraian speakers‘ view to everything in the environtment that existing in the text of ritual barong wae? (2) What are the things that they view in around them that implied in the text of ritual barong wae ? Then, (3) How do they look at all of the things, encoded in the text of ritual barong wae?

PURPOSES OF DISCUSSION

This article is presented to reach some goals dealing with the problems that stated above. The aims of writing these academic papers are like in the following. First, it describes what the Manggaraian speakers view to everything existing oround them, recorded in form of the ritual text of barong wae. Then, identiflying the sorts of things that the speakers find in the environtment, stated in the text of ritual barong wae Lastly, it explains the the way of speakers see the things around them, enoded in the text of ritual as sated above.

LIMITATION OF DISCUSSION

As pointed out above, this article explores the world view of the Manggaraian speaker that implied in the text of ritual barong wae. It is more to describe a way of how the Manggaraian people look at all things which existing around them either visible or unvisible things. This acticle especially concerns on the sorts of the speakers‘ view to the things that mentioned before. Yet, special concerns on the way of speakers look at the sorts of thing that covered in the text of ritual barong wae. The discussion should be limited in order to the writer will not describe the subjets out of the target and leading the readers to easily understand the content of the article.

SIGNIFICANCE OF DISCUSSION

This article will contribute some important things for both writer and readers as comsimers of the article text. For the wirter as a sender, this academic paper is an effective tool to share his ideas, feelings, as well as wills to the readers as receivers of all the things. More over, the writer will enlarge his knowledges in linguistic field. It is also said that this article will be a medium to improve his ability in term of applying theory of linguistics in general, particularly cultural linguistics. On the other hand, this article contributes the meaningful benefit to the reader as consumers. It is given to them more and losts of informations which dealing with the notions of world view of the Manggaraian speaker, implied in the text of ritual barong wae as aprt of ritual penti (such cultural ceremony to give a worship to the Lord and ancestors).

THEORY AND METHODS

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As stated in the previous section, this paper special concerns on three problems such as world view of the manggaraian native speaker that implied in the ritual text of barong wae ceremony, sorts of the things that viewed by the native speaker encoded in the ritual text of barong wae as a traditional ceremony, and the way of native speakers look on the things around them which implied in the ritual text of traditional ceremony, called barong wae. With respect to the problems as pointed out above, the cultural linguistic approach is appropriately applied to analyze them. It is known that cultural linguistic is one of the linguistic branches as a science. It is a study of language that specially concerns on the conection between language and culture. Cultural linguistics views that language is the play of verbal symbols that based on the imagery of its speaker (see. Palmer, 1996:3; in Rambut, 2015: 15). Refering to the theoretical statements‘ Palmer as quoted by Rambut, it is reasonable that cultural linguisticsas one of linguistic brances has several objects of its studylike: form, meaning, function, and included world view of the speaker. In term of the three objects that pointed out above, one of them may become a core of the discussion in this article, is world view of the native speaker that existing in the ritual text of barong wae. In Perspctive of cultural linguistics, world view is defined as the way speakers see everythings

METHOD

In collecting data, the writer applied a qualitative approach. It is recoginized as a way of collecting qualitative data in which the data are formed out of written words and oral expression from the informan (see Bogdan and Taylor, 1975: 5; Moleong, 2010:4). Moreover, the qualitative approach refers to the meaning, concepts, definition, characteristics, symbols, descriptions of things, and included world view or perception of the speaker that implied in the form of any texts. Through this approach, the reasearcher tries to observe the world view of the Manggaraian speakers that existing in the the ritual text of barongwae (an invitation for the ancestors who live around the water resources) as apart of ritual penti (thanksgiving to the Lord and ancestors). Beside that, the rearceher as well uses the interview as another way of collecting the qualitave data that suppose to be reached. He tries to ask the some informen that selected by random sampling. Those informal questions have been designed to get acurately informations deal with world view of the Manggaraaian speakers in the ritual text of barong wae. In addition, the study of document about world view of manggaraian speaker in the ritual text is one of the methods to collect the data that describing the world view of them. It is supposed to be complete the informations that missing in the two previous methods. This kind of method is recognized as a complentary of collecting the informations that existing in the collective data

The World View and Its Implication

Manggaraian speakers are a group of people who live in the west of Flores. They can communicate to each others by using their own ordinary language, called manggaraian language. Looking at this point, it has ultimate function as a tool of commincation, beside as a medium to keep idea, world view of its speakers.

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and spirit of the ancestors. The ritual language of barong wae is constructed that based on two aesthetic forms, namely parallelism and metaphore. In fact, these forms accommodate world view of the speakers, beside meaning and any others. This section focuses on discussing about world view of the manggaraian people as its speaker in term

of cultural context. In accordance with the focus of discussion as pointed out above, there are two main

points to be explained such as the way the manggaraian people look at all the things around them that accommodated in the text of ritual barong wae in the Manggaraian people‘s tradition. Then, sorts of things that they view, can be grouped into two parts, namely visible and unvisible things. The first one is visible things. These things include all the things that we can touch, see, feel, and hear. They exist in the real world. For this reason, it will be given some examples. Animal like cock and pig, knife, water, plants, human beings, stone, water resources, rice. These examples related to the ritual barong wae. In contrast, the unvisible things like soul of the Lord and ancestors. These things cannot be touched, seen, felt, and heard. They are not in the real world. Thus, the points that sould be discussed later, such as the way of manggaraian people view the all the things that they are facing in aroind them and the sorts of things that they look on, accommodated in the text of ritual barong wae.

The World View

World view of the speaker can be understood through the language that used by the speaker when they communicate to each other (see Robin Ridington 1991:249; in Palmer, 1996:113). Refering to the statements, Rambut (2015:229) argued that world view of manggaraian speaker can be recognized when we interpret the sentences in the text of ritual barong wae. Therefore the term of world view can be defined as the way of thinking, the way of speakers see the all the things that existing in the real world. Looking at this point, world view of manggaraian speaker might be known as the way of life and insight of the manggaraian speaker about everything in the world. The way of thinking and seeing about the world around them, usually found it in the sentences of the ritual text, forinstance ritual text of barong wae.

According to Rambut (2015: 230) said that the way of life or insights of the manggaraian speaker concers with the Lord and ancestors, human beings (man and woman), animals, plants, stone, and water (water resources). Most of the things are important part of the ritual activities. In fact, mostly world view of the speakers (manggaraian people) related to the Lord and ancestor because the language that used describes the transedental relationship with Lord and ancestors.

First, the world view about Lord and ancestors, as pointed out above, mostly accommodated in the senctences of ritual text. For this reason, look examples as follows.

1.Ho‟o cepa latang te ité Mori agu Ngaran, this bitle-nut of for you (SING) owner and owner

Jari agu Dedek. creator and creator

This bitle-nut is worshiped for you almighty God.

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Manggarai usually worship the Lord with the bittle nut before they present the purpose of their coming. By this way, they believe that the Lord may receive and consider their request. So, from this point of view the term world view can be defined as the believeness of the people. The second point is that the way of Manggaraian people see the ancestors. First of all the ancestor is a person who had ever lived before he died. His world is different and never come again. Then he had been born before the people were born. Then they look at the the ancerstor as a communicator of sending message to the Lord. See example as follows.

Empo ata pa‟ang ble ata laro jaong mu‟u tunggku ngger one Grandpa person gate there person bridge speak mouth connect to in ranga de mori -n

face Poss owner poss

ancestor in eternal life as a communicator of sending message to the Lord. Based on this meaning, the statement can interpretated as an expression of how the people of Manggarai believe that their ancestor (grandfather who lives closely with the Lord in the heaven). Laro jaong mu‟u tungku (communicator of sending message) is a term that indicates the role of the ancestors. People of Manggarai believe that their spirit, on behalf of the holy spirit of the Lord, always be with them.

Yet, the world view is related to cultural animals. It is known that in Manggaraian tradition animals used in the traditional ceremony mostly pig and cock. However, in barong wae ceremony, people usually use cock as worship animal. Accordng their believeness, cock is an honorable animal for the Lord. It is a symbol of their holly heart. For this reason, look at the example as follows.

ho‟o manuk lalong bakok latang te ite mori agu ngaran jari agu dedek This cock white for to you owner and owner creator and creator

This is a white cock that worship for you Lord.

The cock, in term of the barong wae ritual, is indicating the way people of Manggarai see the animal as holy worship to the Lord. So, cock is very important for the people in Manggarai. It is known as kind of animal used in the ritual communication with the Lord and ancestors. Beside that, the world view is associated with the water. As we know that ritual barong wae is dealt with water. This ritual is actually devoted to the souls of the ancestor who protect the water resource in order to always be supplied water inside the earth.Thus, the people would not find difficulties to have water. This notion is situated in the sentences of ritual barong wae as follows.

kembus wae teku mboas wae woang Full water take flow water resource

Water is always full to be taken and it can flow out from the resource to surface. From this point, it can be interpretated that people of Manggarai view the water is always supplied in the resouce as a symbol of their life. It is because that water is a life. It means that life without water is as same as human being died and it will be never come again. On the other hand, they believe that water is representative of being the Lord and ancestor in the realty. It can be drawn the conclusion that manggaraian world view concern with several things. The first point is world view associates with the Lord, and then associated with ancestors, the second thing is the world view is related to the animals, and lastly, the world view is a way of manggaraian people look at the water as an important resource of life.

The Implication of the world view

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water. ―Alo Ingga is a traditional leader who said that if we recognize the meaning and world view of ritual expressions, for example utterances in the text of ritual barong wae, it will become a soul to think well, to work hard, to behave honestly‖ (see Rambut, 2015). Reffering to the statement, world view can influence the people to think well, to woek hard, and to behave honestly, and trustly act. On the other hand, the world view may become a compass to show the best ways in coping with all the problems which the people always find in the day life.

CONCLUSION

The ritual text of Manggaraian people in barong wae ceremony is constructed with several utterences. These sentences briely discuss the the relationship between human beings and the Lord and ancestors. Realty shows that the text of ritual is mostly formed out by parallelism and methaphore. The utterances are implied the meanings and world view of its speaker. The world view that implies in the text of ritual is a way of thinking, way of life, and way of speaking concerning with everything in the world, especially in the eternal life. Over all the text describe the devotion of the manggaraian people to almighty God and to honorable ancestors who live in the eternal life. Then, it describes the relationships between human beings and anmimal and particularly water as the resources of life. It shows how the people of Manggaraian behave to the animals and particularly in the water. It laso indicates how the people look after the water resource and animals, especially cultural animals like pigs and hans or cocks.

Moreover, the things that pointed out above are closely related to the worldview of the manggaraian peoplen which implied in the text. Those who understand the term of world view in the ritual text very well can guide them in the right track of life. They may be correctly think about all the problems, facing them in the daily as well as they may be speak well when they talk to each other.

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